Speaker 2: 0:12

Welcome to the Atma podcast, where we share the tips, tools and strategies you'll need to help your business be successful. I'm your host story and today we have on the show none other than the CEO of Advent Trinity Marketing Agency, mr Brian Acosta. Welcome, brian.

Speaker 1: 0:29

Hey, hey, hey. Thank you guys for joining us. Appreciate you. We had some technical difficulties before trying to figure this thing out, but we're here now. We're here now.

Speaker 2: 0:38

Hey, as long as we made it, that's all that matters, right, as long as you show up.

Speaker 1: 0:42

Yeah, we'll edit that rest of the stuff later.

Speaker 2: 0:48

It's all right. So, um, what are we talking about today? We are talking about the foundation of great marketing and what is that?

Speaker 1: 0:52

the strategy, yes, strategy so.

Speaker 2: 0:55

So let's just dive into the basics, why a structured and essential strategy is so important and helps you save time, money and frustration. Let's start with the basics, Brian. Why do so many businesses skip this?

Speaker 1: 1:15

They skip the strategy. I think a lot of people skip strategy when it comes to marketing because you're innovative with all this information online, right, of course, that marketing is easy, business is easy. Look at me, I did it. If you did it my way, you could get the same results. And I think the problem no, I don't think the problem. The problem is that that is so false, right? And because there's so much competition there's so much competition in today's age and world that you have to be able to compete, right, you have to be able to compete throughout the competitors and and understand that doing things differently, right, you have to do different to compete.

Speaker 1: 1:59

Because if you're doing the same thing as your competitors, you, you all, are generating the same results, which means that the market becomes saturated, and then you're really not generating anything at that point, right. And then your competitors, they're not going to let you compete like that.

Speaker 2: 2:16

So what's the cost of not having a strategy in your mind, in your mindset? And since you've been with Advent Trinity and launched a lot of other businesses as well, what would you say the cost of not having a strategy?

Speaker 1: 2:29

The cost of not having a strategy is that you're taking a massive risk with your business right, and we all know that risk is inevitable when it comes to business and marketing.

Speaker 2: 2:41

Of course.

Speaker 1: 2:42

Like everybody, takes a risk. In fact, the reason I have my tablet is because I wanted to bring this data up and this information up into this podcast. Was the statistics, real numbers real numbers. So I always say that 97% of businesses fail, but let's take a deeper dive into the reality.

Speaker 2: 3:02

Okay.

Speaker 1: 3:03

So 20.4% of businesses fail within their first year. 49.4% fell within the first five years. Okay, 65.3% fell within the first 10 years. Wow, right, so and then? Okay, so you have all right. I see you know the failure rate, yada, yada, okay. Well, now let's take a look at the marketing.

Speaker 2: 3:30

Right, what did they do?

Speaker 1: 3:31

Well, no, no, no. The marketing statistics. Let me take a look at this marketing statistics. This is what's going to scare you.

Speaker 2: 3:36

Okay. So the average website conversion rate across industries is 2.35 percent and conversion rate, meaning people that come to your website look at something, click on it and become a client inquire okay inquiry wow, 35 percent.

Speaker 1: 3:54

And e-commerce conversion rate averages anywhere from two to four percent, and that varies for industry. And the thing is is that these are very low numbers, right, they are very low, okay. Email marketing, uh, you know, boost average roi of 36 to 40. You know, email marketing is pretty good, right, but you look at the three percent, you look at the two percent, and that's so. Why would, why would I spend money on digital marketing? Is is what some people are. If that's such low, right, and it's because you don't know the numbers. You don't know the numbers to understand how to strategize okay, so how do we find those numbers?

Speaker 1: 4:30

the numbers is basically already here. You already have in your mindset two to three percent which means you, if you only have two to three percent of success, success rate, right, right of marketing.

Speaker 1: 4:44

You don't want to just throw money at marketing and hope for the best exactly it seems like a huge waste of money trying to figure out what works right and so, and it's not just um, it's not just the, the, the, it's not just the business owners okay, it's all marketers too, like, uh, if marketers don't actually sit down and do the strategy? And there's some marketers out there, right, quote unquote quote unquote. And uh, if they don't sit down and actually do the strategy or they actually sit down and figure out exactly what kind of campaign, who am I trying to target market?

Speaker 1: 5:24

who am I trying to be in front of what uh message? Am I trying to uh proceed to them? Right then, that two percent could easily be less than one percent? Wow, right, and so you're. You're taking a gamble. Anytime you do a business, right, you take a gamble right, absolutely and in marketing it's the same thing.

Speaker 1: 5:44

You're gambling, you're taking a risk, and the fact that people don't sit down and actually, you know, think about what they're actually going to be doing, strategizing, is just baffling to me. You know, we, we as a company, we do a discovery.

Speaker 2: 6:01

That's what I was going to ask next. So can you walk us through how Advent Trinity approaches planning a campaign before anything is built?

Speaker 1: 6:08

Yes, so we do discovery right. In fact, we recently stopped doing we stopped gauging clients without doing discovery. Like if you come to us and you want marketing and you don't do a discovery, we just won't do marketing for you, and here's why. So we've taken a look at the numbers internally. We've taken a look at the numbers internally and those who did not do a discovery have a higher risk of failure than those who did discovery.

Speaker 2: 6:41

Absolutely.

Speaker 1: 6:47

Those who did discovery have a higher success rate than those who didn't do discovery. And um, what is a discovery right? The discovery is, uh, where we sit down, we first get to know the customer and the client back, you know, but we get to know them more than they know themselves absolutely and bring up those questions right that that really makes them think is is this what my prospect is?

Speaker 1: 7:07

yes, exactly like. Do they even know who? Because in their heads they they have an idea of who their target market is, they have an idea of their prospects. Uh, they have an idea of what's going to work, but they don't have the data. Okay, right, and so part of the part of the discovery is the research. Right Is understanding the data. Who are we going to be in front of? What is it going to take? How much money is it going to take? What are those? Click? You know the cost per clicks for the keywords. All of those is data that we utilize to figure out. Ok, how much advertising dollars do you really need in order for us to get a return on investment?

Speaker 2: 7:44

Absolutely. You always say that data doesn't lie, right? So if we're seeing results pros or cons from your competitors, we can learn from that, right, and that's only through data and investigation into what exactly you're doing and how others are doing it. Right, right, exactly, okay, okay.

Speaker 1: 8:01

And so you know. So we do research and then we do a full marketing plan. Ok, and that marketing plan, we sit down and after we've reviewed the research, we go through the data. We start to figure out, ok, what channels, what channels are we doing, who's our persona, how are we going to engage? Right, and you would think, well, shouldn't every marketing company do that? And you're absolutely right.

Speaker 2: 8:27

You would assume that that's what happens, right.

Speaker 1: 8:29

Right. But here's the thing A lot of business owners when they think, okay, they should be doing that, but they should be doing it a part of my service fee, right, and that's not true.

Speaker 2: 8:40

It's absolutely not. I would say most of our clients come to us from those types of agencies and they're like well, it didn't work before.

Speaker 1: 8:47

Well, because they didn't do strategy. So what they did was a cookie cutter marketing plan. They did a cookie cutter ad campaign that they did for somebody else, that it worked. And so they're doing the same thing for you, right, and now that's because, and all of a sudden, it's not working. You know, they said that was going to work, but it's not working. And it's like, yes, because you are different from your competitor.

Speaker 2: 9:10

Right. What are the key metrics? Are you saying that the key metrics and tools you use to look at first are what their audience is really and what channels? And when you say channels, do you mean social media or do you mean Google? What channels?

Speaker 1: 9:25

channels? Do you mean social media, or do you mean Google? What channels? So let me walk you through this, because it kind of varies from from client to client, Right. So you know when we're doing discovery. Like I said, the first phase is just understanding the business. The second phase is that market research. Ok. So if a client comes to us and says, well, I think I need to be on Google market research, Okay, so if a client comes to us and says, well, I think I need to be on Google, All right, Well you know, google has many factors of ranking.

Speaker 1: 9:49

You've got local SEO. You've got local service ads. You've got Google ads. You've got PPC. You've got, you know, gemini. Now, right, it's just AI, and so it's like, okay, so let's find out what the real estate is right and what's my best investment there. And then you have to take well, if I'm going to do PPC, how much do those keywords actually cost?

Speaker 1: 10:09

And how competitive, is it Right? And so, like you know, every industry is different, and if you can at least understand the keyword competitives, especially in your geographic area, then you're better to invest your marketing dollars, right.

Speaker 2: 10:23

Which is part of your discovery analysis. Right, finding those key phrases and those keywords that are going to make you give you more exposure. Correct, right, exactly.

Speaker 1: 10:33

And so, and then you got the keyword research right and then so that's just PPC. Another part of discovery is like, let's say, we get a customer and they have a brand new concept because we've gotten this before. They have a brand new concept because we've gotten this before. They have a brand new concept. Okay, when you have a brand new concept is is there a market for this product? Okay, and you know, I always ask this question Do you know the root word of marketing?

Speaker 2: 10:58

What is the root word of marketing? Market? It's market right.

Speaker 1: 11:02

So the market. Is there a a market? Do you understand? The market is there supply, and in market, it's very simple. It's supply and demand, right, and so is there a demand for this product or service that you're offering? Okay, uh, and how competitive is it right? Is it saturated? Does anybody know anything about this? And they were like well, there's not competition because nobody's doing what we're doing. That is wrong.

Speaker 2: 11:31

There is always competition right always competition that's why we have industries right well, they're industries.

Speaker 1: 11:37

But you know, just because um you your product solves a solution, doesn't mean that another product or service doesn't solve that solution as well.

Speaker 2: 11:47

Absolutely.

Speaker 1: 11:47

And it may be solving it in a different way, and you're still competing for attention, right, absolutely. And then how well will your product or service be accepted in the market?

Speaker 1: 12:03

is another question will your product or service be accepted in the market is another question, and so all of that research dictates how you're going to be do the next campaign. And so you're thinking. Well, you know, there's a lot of questions in the air, and if you're, if you're listening right now and you're like man, that gives me a lot of questions, I'm starting to think about all kinds of things in my business. You're right, because you don't just want to build a campaign, you don't just want to build a website. You want to build the right message, the right campaign and be in front of the right person at the right time, because if the numbers are true which they are and then only 2.35% of website conversions happen on the website, it 2.35% of website conversions happen on the website, then you only have 2.35% chance to get somebody's attention.

Speaker 2: 12:52

In the word you said time. Are you in front of your audience at the right timeframe In the discovery which I think is a key factor in the longevity of how long your business lasts? Are you planning appropriately If it is a new business that no one's ever touched? How long does the brand awareness phase take until you have conversions?

Speaker 1: 13:12

right, and so a lot of those questions, um, there are. They are answered in the strategy, uh, because, um, you know, time is etas, right, everything is about eta. You know, we can get an idea of how long it will take, uh, but there's no direct answer. And and that's the thing is like, marketers always want to guarantee something, right.

Speaker 1: 13:34

And you can't you can't guarantee return on investment, which you can't. This is what we can guarantee. Anybody who's listening can guarantee this is what you can be guaranteed. You can be guaranteed clicks to your website. You can be guaranteed, you know, visitors to your page, engagement All those things can be guaranteed. What can't be guaranteed is you can lead the horse to the water, but you can't force the water to drink. I mean, you can't force the horse to drink right, absolutely. And so here's the issue though you know I believe in that, that's true. Okay, now there is a flip side to that, because I do believe that you can convince the horse to drink only if you know what the horse is thinking and how to communicate it to it?

Speaker 2: 14:23

And how do you learn and know what the horse is thinking?

Speaker 1: 14:26

you have to do strategy, you have to plan, you have to, you have to strategize, you have to plan, you have to get into the mind of the user right and so that that's part of the strategy is like, before you build anything, do you know who your customers are and do you know who your prospects are? Do you know what they like?

Speaker 2: 14:47

do you know where they?

Speaker 1: 14:48

live. Do you truly know? And a lot of people are like I know, I, I truly know, I truly know. Well, if you can't write a Bible on your customer, you don't know right.

Speaker 2: 14:58

so how do you balance creativity with data when building marketing strategies?

Speaker 1: 15:04

So so you take that data right, right, and then, based on that data, you're then able to create personas. Okay. So you're you're able to create make believe customers that resemble the customers that you currently have. You're able to say you're able to then, and if you've done your data and you kind of figure out, you know their lingo right, you're able to say you're able to then, and if you've done your dad and you kind of figure out, you know they're lingo right, you're able to do like a brand voice Okay.

Speaker 2: 15:29

Okay.

Speaker 1: 15:30

Let me put this in perspective. We actually have two customers, two customers that are in two different states. Ok, you know, one in Texas, one in New Mexico. Ok, I am not going to say the same thing I say in Texas as I do in New Mexico. There's two different brand voices, two different ways to say it, two different ways of, you know, basically engaging those, those customers. You have to say things differently. You just, you just have to right absolutely you can't expect to go from one market, which is Texas, and do the same thing in New Mexico right, or New York for that matter and it doesn't even matter if they're the same service of product.

Speaker 1: 16:13

Okay, the way you say things in texas are going to be different than what you say in new mexico and it matters and it does matter, right, and so that's where that data, right, that data, the the uh, interest and behaviors, all those things, that kind of data that's where that ball is in is because what are we saying that they are going to actually engage in, they're going to get a like, they're going to like right, right.

Speaker 1: 16:38

And it's easier when you have a local marketing company because they're local, right and so they understand that you know like, we're based in Texas, so we know everything in and out of Texas.

Speaker 2: 16:48

Right.

Speaker 1: 16:48

But if we're going to market to somebody in New Mexico, we have to understand how they speak, what they like, what they don't like Right. Understand how they speak what they like, what they don't like Right. Build a brand voice behind that so that it gets accepted in that market.

Speaker 2: 17:02

Of course you know you got the.

Speaker 1: 17:05

It's like the North and the South. You would not do the same Southern hospitality type marketing in the South than you would do in the North.

Speaker 2: 17:14

Right and calling someone ma'am even is completely different here than it is in New Jersey. Sometimes that's seen negatively. So, being a marketing company, not only do we have to do that deep dive analysis, but our networking partners really come into play when we're doing things outside of our state, understanding their demographic and their verbiage and how they do it, and that all comes into play when we create the strategy for a client right. Yep, okay, great. So tell me what's a strategy myth that you see entrepreneurs fall for all the time?

Speaker 1: 17:50

a strategy myth that okay, that's a good question. So a myth I guess a myth would be is I can do the same strategy as somebody else.

Speaker 1: 17:59

If I can copy that strategy, I'll get the same return on investment, and that is a huge, huge waste of time. Why? Because if you're doing exactly what your competitors are doing, they're going to adjust and all you're going to do is be behind the ball. You're going to be behind your do is be behind the ball. You're gonna be behind your competitors a hundred percent of the time. It doesn't matter, you know.

Speaker 1: 18:21

You know what you're doing if all you're doing is copying your competitors right and um, and you think that I'm gonna get the the same return on investment. Well, think about these larger corporations, right? This particular perspective. Let's not take it to small companies anymore. Let's think about these larger corporations, right. Let's take this in perspective. Let's not talk about small companies anymore. Let's think about big corporations. Big corporations, right? You talk about these massive, and all I see we're in a tech company, right? In a technology world.

Speaker 1: 18:48

In the tech world, the software world, once you replicate a same solution as a software, they're already on to the next, and all you're doing is playing behind the ball. So you have to eventually catch up to them, and then you have to then advance them with a different solution that they don't even have, right? That's how you. That's how you overthink the market, right? And so you overcome the market by doing something different. So you know, know, if the market is always changing and people in business are always changing, then why are people trying to do the same marketing as other people?

Speaker 2: 19:27

and when you're doing the same marketing as other people, are you factoring in the price point that that's going to cost you?

Speaker 1: 19:33

right, exactly, because if you're, you know bidding right. So let's just say I want to do exactly the same thing as my competitor. Well, if you're you okay. So let's just say google, for example okay, that's a big one uh, so google? Um, it's about bidding for keywords. You have the same keywords, you have the same exact plan, exact plan as your competitor. Same keywords. You've put neck to neck right. That value of that keyword is going to get higher and higher and higher and eventually it's going to be out of your budget.

Speaker 2: 20:03

What do you mean by value of keywords? So the more someone uses it, the more Google charges?

Speaker 1: 20:09

for you to utilize it right, Because saturation it's important to know, yeah.

Speaker 1: 20:14

So what happens is like you know you're trying to do the same thing as your competitors, but you don't realize that you're just actually blowing money instead of trying to do something different to gain partials of those tractions of the market. Remember, the root word of marketing is market. And how do you get parts of the market in different ways and then eventually compete with your competitors or out-compete your competitors to take portions of that market right? And so that's why strategy is so important. A lot of people they misperceive strategy. It's like okay, I don't need to think about it, I just really need a marketing company.

Speaker 2: 20:55

I know I need social media, and here's marketing company, I know I need social media, and here's the deal.

Speaker 1: 20:59

Everybody knows they need social media. Everybody knows they need a website. Everybody knows they need to be on Google. Everybody knows that they need to be somewhere right on the internet. They need an online presence. But what is the actual strategy that you're going to be doing?

Speaker 2: 21:17

And so we have a structured plan right.

Speaker 1: 21:18

Right, we have the build, launch, grow scale philosophy, which we're gonna go through this entire show. I'm excited to do this, right. But the reason why I wanted to start with strategy first is because nobody everybody wants to build. Oh, I want my website. I want to look awesome, right? I want the videos.

Speaker 2: 21:35

I want the photos I need to have somewhere for them to go to exactly.

Speaker 1: 21:40

Okay, so, and but I need you to do it, okay, so you need me to strategize, correct? Yes, so we need to sit down, take time which we're not talking a day, and we're not talking a day, we're talking about a few days, probably weeks to actually understand this business, map this out completely, map this out where we have a, a calculated risk which is funny because we talked about risk at the very beginning of this, right? Yes, you know, marketing is a risk, business is a risk, and one of my, my mentors right, he'll always say this because he's a he, he actually invests in stocks. Okay is, are we taking a calculated risk in this marketing venture? Okay?

Speaker 1: 22:21

so if we're gonna build the website, the, the social media, all that stuff, right, um, you know, do we have the right data to say the right message? Do we have the right data, uh, to get in front of the right people? How much is it actually going to cost?

Speaker 2: 22:35

and on what platforms? Right and well what platforms right.

Speaker 1: 22:37

And here's the is it actually going to cost? And on what platforms right? And on what platforms right. And here's the thing A lot of people, when I ask them what their budget is, what's their answer?

Speaker 2: 22:44

They don't know their budget. You tell me.

Speaker 1: 22:46

Yeah, I don't know my budget. Can you tell me? That's why you know. Well, if you want me to tell you what your budget is, then you have to do a discovery. You have to understand your market and if we're gonna research your market, we're gonna do all the strategy. We're gonna research, we're gonna gather all that data to tell you the answers that you've been looking for on how much you're actually supposed to be spending right to be competitive. To be competitive, you're gonna have to pay for that. You look at all these bigger companies organizing. I mean, this is this isn, this isn't a norm, right? People know this. Businesses buy data Successful, successful businesses. Thank you, appreciate that.

Speaker 2: 23:24

You're welcome.

Speaker 1: 23:25

Successful businesses buy data. They go out and they buy data. They go out and they buy research. Well, brian, they got money. No, they're taking calculated risk, something that 97% of the businesses aren't doing. They know what they're walking into, you know what they're walking into, and so a lot of businesses fail because they don't know what they're walking into. They don't know you know how much they're supposed to be spending, right?

Speaker 2: 23:50

or you know what, if they're being taken advantage of to have a six to twelve month plan of what you should be submitting, based on the data. And the analysis is huge, because if you're going to other places they're like no, we're going to charge you this month up front and it'll take a month. You know after this discovery whether or not that's really factual, based on the data yeah, and most businesses they they spend a lot less than that they're supposed to.

Speaker 1: 24:15

Let's's just be honest right, they're supposed to be spending. You know, if they do the real data, they do the real strategy and they're like, okay, I understand how competitive it is, and they're just like, but you know, that's not part of my budget, then you need funding. Right, you need funding. You need to have funding for your business and organizations to take it to the next level, and I hate to say that, but it's the truth, it's the truth. If you're going to compete, you need funding right.

Speaker 2: 24:44

Name me one competitor that didn't have some sort of funding to compete Interesting. That somewhat leads me to my next question. For someone just starting out, what's the first step to creating a real marketing strategy other than funding One, establishing whether or not you need it right, and what's the next step?

Speaker 1: 24:58

I mean, the first step is knowing what you're walking into. That is the number one step for any business owner out there, for any small business owner. The first step to them is just understanding what they're walking into, and the first thing they got to do is understand how much money they actually need. Right, right, um and so and so you know it's funny because you know companies come to us all the time. Here's my business plan. I have a marketing plan and I look at their marketing plan. I said this is not a marketing plan. Okay, what this is is your vision of how this marketing is supposed to work, and not an actual marketing plan.

Speaker 2: 25:35

And it's great to have a vision, but to be competitive and to not waste your money, you really have to have some type of strategy that that's pulled from people who know what they're doing and what buckets to put it in Right.

Speaker 1: 25:49

Right, so let me, let me, let me give you a difference between a real marketing plan and some marketing plan that you know people just put together, Right?

Speaker 2: 25:57

OK.

Speaker 1: 25:58

So most marketing plans are generic. They have the same information you know which is the target market. All of that's been taught Right. A real marketing plan has data, though, and that's that's the secret. That's the secret between a marketing plan, which I think this is going to work, to a marketing plan that I know is going to calculate. At risk is the data. Can you tell me how much these keywords cost? Can you tell me how many people live in the city? Can you tell me, uh, how many P? Based on the people that are living in the city, how many people are actually interested? Can you tell me, um, you know how many people based on the city, right? How many impressions are we? Can you tell me, um, you know how many people based on the city, right? How many impressions are we? Are we thinking about getting okay To get those engagements, to get those conversions?

Speaker 1: 26:45

And then, based on that data, how much budget do I actually need in order for me to get the conversion? And so what people do is they walk in and they're like look, listen, I know they're in Texas, I know that they. You know that they love candy, right? I don't know, I was just saying something, right? I know they love candy, so I know they're going to buy.

Speaker 2: 27:07

See, and I have we have seen a lot of clients in that same situation that are seasoned, They've already begun their business and they've said, yeah, I have a ton of following, but we do the analysis as to whether or not that following our customers and whether or not they're converting Right. We we've seen thousands and thousands of followers and none of them buy.

Speaker 1: 27:31

I'm telling you right now, I've seen some horror stories. Okay, I've taken some clients right before us, okay, and now I've seen some horror stories okay, I've taken some clients right before us, okay, and uh, yeah, they have a large following, and a large following it's um on facebook, right and um, the following wasn't even local, it was in third world countries, okay, and it's like, well, where was your money going, you know?

Speaker 1: 27:52

and we look into that in the strategy phase Right it was a demographic and we were like this this following isn't going to do you anything. I'm going to build you a brand new following, because your followers are in a third world country, right, so we need to spend some. You know, if it came organically, great. Right, but if it came, I paid for it. Then we have a real problem, right, because now like, why? Right?

Speaker 2: 28:19

A lot of smoke and mirrors. Exactly, exactly.

Speaker 1: 28:22

And and that's another thing about our, you know, discovery and our strategy and ensuring that you have the right strategy is that is, that you, you know, have clarity, right, transp, transparency, um, that you can understand here's, here's the deal, like I, I get it, I get it. Trust me, I've, uh, you know, I run three companies. I run, you know, a co-working space, a software company and a marketing agency. Every decision you make, um, is like a telescope, right, I mean, I mean, I'm, I'm magnifying glass it's like a telescope right, I mean, I'm magnifying glass.

Speaker 1: 28:56

It's like, okay, something's bound to happen, okay, and every decision you make, is this the right decision or is this the wrong decision?

Speaker 1: 29:04

Right, and it goes back to risk and I keep on saying that, and I keep on emphasizing that in this podcast, because the risk of starting a business is high 97% of businesses fail. Okay, only 3% make it, truly make it, and you just saw the stats of 3% and it's not to scare anybody, but it's the reality. It's the reality that you can't just jump into marketing, you can't just jump into business. You have to think, you have to strategize, you have to know where you're going, right, and. And so you have to have answers, uh, before you start investing, and. And so, as a business owner, you're like, well, I gotta make this work. I gotta make this work, and I fear for you. I, I do feel for you, right, and because I I get it, because the, the financial stress, the financial burden, we all have families to feed and all this kind of stuff, right, and. But we're, at the end of the day, we're all in competition.

Speaker 2: 30:04

Right Every single day. So, brian, for a final closing question from me what are some quick wins, any tips people can get just by analyzing their current data differently?

Speaker 1: 30:17

Yeah, quick wins. So quick wins would be who do you have customers? That's number one.

Speaker 2: 30:25

Okay.

Speaker 1: 30:26

And who are the customers and you also have to think about. Are they the right customers?

Speaker 2: 30:30

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 30:30

You know, I know this for a fact, like as your business grows, your market changes, right, which is another thing. Right. Your business may not be doing the same thing as it was doing last year as this year, which is another thing. Right. Your business may not be doing the same thing as it was doing last year as this year, which is why I think you need to do strategy every year.

Speaker 2: 30:47

Absolutely Re-evaluate where you are. Are your customers referral partners?

Speaker 1: 30:53

Yeah, yeah. And so to do a quick win, to be honest with you, to do a quick win is to analyze who your current customers are right now, who is their target market, you know how old are they, how do they find this right? And then you know what do they like about just doing interviews with your current customers, and that way you can kind of understand at least your persona right.

Speaker 1: 31:18

And when you build out your persona, then you can kind of expand on that and saying, okay, now that I know my persona, now I know who they are, what they like, what they like to do, how old are they, that kind of stuff. Now we can start to expand.

Speaker 2: 31:30

Right.

Speaker 1: 31:32

You know they live on Facebook, they live on Google. Ok, all, right, now we can start to expand on that marketing plan. Slowly but surely, gets you to a true marketing plan, the thing where you're going to have to define the data that you are going to need an expert in is the data, right.

Speaker 1: 31:53

And so, if you have that information, now what is the data that you're not seeing right? The keywords, the change in you know, even you know real estate agents they have to know this too, right who's moving in and who's moving out of cities, things of that nature, Um and so um. A lot of it's about that, right, strategizing for data, uh, and then so here, here's, here's kind of what I want to go through before we start answering questions is I know people are like, okay, well, I understand, this is a lot of information, right.

Speaker 1: 32:20

Um so here's, here's what it boils down to. It boils down to you know a few things, right, and I kept on repeating myself. But bear with me, I'm going to go through this entire marketing plan in my head right now, right, Cook? So, first off, it's what is the business? Okay, what is your executive summary?

Speaker 2: 32:43

Okay.

Speaker 1: 32:43

Who are you? What do you do? What are your service? What are your products? What do you have to offer?

Speaker 1: 32:51

Okay, and is it, um, is it a uh? Is it? You know, something that the market demands? So supply and demand right, is it going to be accepted in the market? So, who are you as a business? That's an overview of your overview of your business, right, okay, and then we get into the target market. Okay, so then we get into the target market. Is who are your customers? Right, uh, how old are they? Yada, yada, yeah, right, uh, interest, behaviors you know things of that nature, absolutely. Genders, all of that stuff, okay. Now we get into demo graphics. Okay, demographics is where do they live? Okay, where do they live? How big are these cities? Right, um, what zip codes? Um, you know, and what in the demographic is that demographic changing?

Speaker 1: 33:40

interesting because, because we live in Texas, you know how the landscape of Texas has changed. Because people from California are moving to Texas, the shift of Texas itself is changing.

Speaker 2: 33:52

Absolutely. I mean, it's always been a little different depending on where you go North, south, east, west it's like a completely different state.

Speaker 1: 33:59

The mentality of Texas is completely changing. It's slowly but surely changing, yes, like a completely different state. The mentality of Texas is completely changing and you have, it's slowly but surely changing, you know, and it's going to change eventually. It's just how markets work. Same thing with California, same thing with New York. So, demographics, right. So then you have the demographics All right. So now you know your, your business, you know your target market, you know your demographic. Then you get into the digital landscapes. Okay. So then you go into channels, right, and you go into channels. You go into google. Are they on google? Are they on facebook? Are they instagram? Are they on x? Are they on tiktok? Based on their target demographic and the target market and a demographic, the behaviors and interests, will tell you and dictate what channels you want to be on, right? Is it Google? We talked about that earlier. How much am I supposed to be investing in Google? Is it Facebook? Is it Instagram? Is it TikTok? Okay, so you got channels.

Speaker 2: 34:55

And whether or not I would like to add on to that whether or not your channels are reaching that demographic, because I can have a lot of people on linkedin that I know are completely different, different demographic than the people I'm going to find on instagram that are buyers right, those are, those are important. So if you're dumping money into one thing, that's not benefiting you at the end of the day or reaching your demographic. This is why you need a strategy yep, exactly, and and and.

Speaker 1: 35:21

So you know you get down to the channels, okay, and then here we go. It gets beyond that, right, and that's why. So you're now okay. So I've already done some work, I've got the channels All right. What technology am I using in the company?

Speaker 2: 35:37

Ooh.

Speaker 1: 35:38

So what technology am I going to use to build what I'm about to build? Okay, so now you're, you're, you're now that just through a lot of businesses owners into a deep dive right here, because there's so many CRMs, there's so many website builders, there's so many all this other stuff. There's so much technology. There is so much technology. You get overwhelmed. You're like I don't know, I don. So much technology, there is so much technology.

Speaker 2: 36:04

you get overwhelmed, you're like I don't know, I don't know, I don't know what to do and how much money you should spend on each of those right exactly because the technology now affects your marketing campaigns, the way you build, the way you launch, the way you grow and scale.

Speaker 1: 36:15

Okay, and so what technology? You know, I was just getting an example we build websites on shopify, wordpress, all kinds of stuff, right? So what? What CMS system are we using to build this website specifically for operations and marketing purposes? Ok, what's CRM customer relation management system? Ok, then am I going to be using? Because, see, while you're only thinking, I need to get it, because a lot of this was about strategy, getting in front of people.

Speaker 2: 36:40

Right.

Speaker 1: 36:42

The marketing plan doesn't stop there. The marketing plan is if that 3% are going to convert, then how do you keep them converting and bringing in more people?

Speaker 1: 36:51

Well you have to have a CRM in place. What does those drip campaigns look like? Right, if they fill out a form on the website. So if you fill out a form and you got viewers on here today, and I appreciate you guys, but there's some automation happening, you're probably going to get some hit up follow ups after this. I'm sorry about that, but it's all automation, right it's. How do we keep in engaged with people that are viewing online?

Speaker 2: 37:12

And is your CRM collecting the data you need to reengage the people that want to be?

Speaker 1: 37:17

Exactly, and so that's part of the marketing plan. Okay, that's part of the marketing strategy, right? It's not just how much money am I spending on advertising, it's how much money am I spending on technology. All of this has to do with then going back to the budget. See you now, okay. So once you have all this information, then you now have to break the budget up. Now you have to dissect the budget. How much am I spending on advertising as far as google campaigns, facebook ads, right to get awareness?

Speaker 2: 37:50

just the brand, just the brand awareness.

Speaker 1: 37:52

How do I, how much money do I need to get people to? Hey, here I am. Click on me, go to my website right how much money do I need to spend to where? Now they're on the website? Did I build a beautiful website that actually has enough information, enough video, enough photography to get them to engage? Absolutely okay, how much money budget do I need to? Then? If only three percent converted? Okay, if only three percent converts, how much money do I need to spend to get in front of them again?

Speaker 2: 38:27

or get them to buy again.

Speaker 1: 38:28

E-commerce is going to be completely different, right well, if they, you know, have you ever gone to a website? You've ever gone to a website? And then you go to social media and you feel like they're following you. Oh, absolutely. Those are called retargeting ads. It's because we're trying to get you to convert. So now, how much money do you have you have allocated for retargeting ads?

Speaker 2: 38:48

Which gets my husband. Every time, by the way, it gets me too, okay, and then you have.

Speaker 1: 38:54

So you have the conversion portion of the budget, which is retargeting ad campaigns. You know things that will help with you know conversion, specifically getting leads. And then you have you notice that we're going through the awareness, engagement, conversion, delight. Okay, so here we go. So you get them to convert. You get them to convert. Do you have a strategy in place to get them to be excited? Right, like onboarding welcome packets, promotional goods, things of that nature to say, hey, you're part of the team. That also needs to be a part of your marketing strategy.

Speaker 2: 39:33

To ask them to be referral partners If you had a great experience.

Speaker 1: 39:36

Well, you just beat me to the punch here, because all I'm trying to do is get you excited and delighted. I'm happy that you're happy about my service and product. I'm happy that you're you're you're part of the team which is in the advocation, which is how much budget do I have to advocate to get more reviews, testimonial videos?

Speaker 1: 39:57

you know referrals, right? Do you see how much complexity we just went through? And that was a lot of time, right, that takes time to figure out and map out. See, when you're doing strategy, you're not just sitting there saying I got an idea, I'm going to copy my competitors, because that's what happens all the time.

Speaker 2: 40:16

I got an idea.

Speaker 1: 40:17

I'm going to copy my competitors. If they did it, I can do it. No, no, no, no, no.

Speaker 2: 40:23

We utilize almost every point person on our team to help create this strategy for each client, do we not?

Speaker 1: 40:29

Yep, you have to figure out each departmental expert and then figure out exactly how to invest your money, and so here's. Here's what I'm going to actually do right now is because I know we're running out of time here, but I'm looking at people and there's got to be a switch. Okay, you have to know when to flip the switch. Are you a business owner or are you an investor?

Speaker 2: 40:55

okay, and so figure that out, right, no?

Speaker 1: 40:58

no, hold on because you have to be both.

Speaker 1: 40:59

If you're a small business owner. So if you're a small business owner, you are too an investor, ok, and you have to know how to flip the switch. A business owner's role is to manage, operate OK. An investor's role is to understand what they're investing in, and so if you can't understand how to invest in marketing, then you shouldn't be investing in marketing, right, and so that's why we have to choose. We have to tell people you have to do a discovery. You have to do a discovery because that is your roadmap to understand what you're investing in. Right, it's not my roadmap. I am not here. I'm not here to take your money. I'm here to help you invest your money in your business, and so you have to understand your blueprint. You have to understand how you're going to market and how you're going to invest in your marketing. Okay, and so that's what we do. When we do a discovery, when we do a strategy session, it's not for us to protect, it's not for us just to take money. It's actually our fiduciary responsibility. I stole that from financial advisors.

Speaker 2: 42:12

I like that.

Speaker 1: 42:12

Fiduciary responsibility to protect your money as the investor. So you understand exactly where your money is going and how we're going to build, launch, grow and scale your marketing.

Speaker 2: 42:23

Right Cause we're not setting people up for failure. For them to be successful is a referral for us to be successful, wouldn't you say?

Speaker 1: 42:31

Exactly their success. Your success is our success, right, and so we don't want, we just don't want you to be unsuccessful, right and so, um, I'm going to. I got.

Speaker 2: 42:42

I think we're in a Q&A time right, yeah, we can start answering a couple of questions. One of the questions I had is how do I know if I'm targeting the right audience?

Speaker 1: 42:53

You'll know you're targeting the right audience if, honestly, if they're engaging right, take a look at the engagement. You first take a look at the engagement to see if they're even responding. Are they even messaging you on Facebook? Are they commenting on Facebook? Are they inquiring? Okay, right. Another thing to know if you're actually targeting the right target market is, once those engagements coming in, is analyzing those, those forms. You know, I, I've seen this happen, this happens all the time. Okay, so you will get spammed, and if you get spammed, you're doing something right, uh, but you're also, you need to do some enhancements. You're also doing something wrong, okay, because, um, this happened to us.

Speaker 2: 43:42

I mean, we got a bunch of Russian forms being filled out yes, tons of them over a month period of time, right, and they weren't converting. I was spending more time on qualifying whether or not it was spam or real than I was on actually having the introductory calls with people that needed me.

Speaker 1: 44:01

Yeah, yeah, so it's. It's one of those things where you, you, you will know, uh, if you're targeting the right market, um, when inquiries are coming, if they're real and you know they're they're actually inquiring and they're legitimate you're targeting the right markets, Okay.

Speaker 2: 44:17

So another question I had which kind of leeways after this one is how long should I test a campaign before I pivot?

Speaker 1: 44:25

Oh, that's a good one. Um, okay, so typically at least two weeks. Um, so you, at least you have to have something. Okay, a lot of people want to pivot, like on the same day. Uh, they're like, oh, let me just launch this campaign. It's not working. It's not working, let me, we got to change something, we got to change something. It's not working. It's not working, let me, we gotta change something. We gotta change something. It's not working. I'm spending money. It's not work.

Speaker 2: 44:46

It's like frantic right and I get it because we're investing money but you can't be frantic when you're an investor so about two weeks to see if a campaign's working. It's kind of like the stock market it goes up and down, but it's exactly like the stock market.

Speaker 1: 45:00

Yeah know, because what's the rude word of marketing?

Speaker 2: 45:03

Market. I think we've all learned that today, okay, and the last question I have right now is when should I invest in ads, before or after my strategy is built? I'm assuming this question was asked before you went through the last portion of what we mentioned, but to reiterate. So yeah, the last portion of what we mentioned, but to reiterate.

Speaker 1: 45:22

So yeah, so ads should never be spent unless you do a strategy and a build phase first. So you first have to strategize what you're going to be doing, Then you have to build the assets. There's no point of advertising if you don't have the right campaign, the right video, the right image, the right. You have to have the right message to get get out there, because you know everybody wants to advertise, because they want leads now. But if you don't have the funds to build the right campaign before you start advertising, you're already dead in the water, Right, and so don't advertise without the right, proper campaign first. Uh, strategize, first, build the message, right. So strategize first. Then we build the message, the, the website, the social, you know the social media campaigns, the, the um, the uh, commercial, whatever we're going to be doing, uh, and then, and then we advertise, right, Make sure you have the proper assets, which is going to be leading into the next phase, which is building, right, which is next episode, next week.

Speaker 1: 46:24

It's about building and you know we're taking this step by step. So today was strategy, you know next week is build. Then we got launch growth scale, right, Absolutely. But if we're going to be talking about building the right assets before you launch. So by the end of this podcast you'll know the entire structure of Advert Trinity and how we've been successful in helping businesses.

Speaker 2: 46:47

And that's what I was going to mention. If any of our viewers out there got value from today, it's because strategy works. It's backed by data and delivered with purpose, and who better to tell us how it works than the person that's helping do it for himself? The CEO of this digital marketing agency. So please subscribe on whatever you're viewing this on and come see us next week for the next phase of this, because throughout the next few weeks, you could really change the whole way your business is successful. We'll see you next time on Marketing with Atma.

Speaker 1: 47:20

Appreciate you guys take care.